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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  6. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  7. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  8. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  9. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  10. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  11. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  12. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  13. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  14. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  19. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  20. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  21. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  22. He is an ace ________________.
  23. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  24. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. root — of a word
  2. chest — of your body
  3. cap — a lid
  4. cold — not warm
  5. object — a thing
  6. bark — to shout
  7. chest — a box
  8. file — a document
  9. pitcher — a jug
  10. object — an aim
  11. pitcher — a jug
  12. bark — a dog's sound
  13. file — a line of people
  14. cap — of ice
  15. cold — an illness
  16. file — a tool
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. root — of a plant
  19. object — to protest
  20. root — the cause
  21. chest — of your body
  22. pitcher — in baseball
  23. bark — of a tree
  24. cap — a hat

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com